Pelicans In Paracas, Ica, Sanding In Huacachina!

Hi everyone. I´ve been off adventuring more of South America. I´d like to share some of the images that I captured of Peru.

I traveled to Paracas by bus with a friend, from Lima. It was meant to be my sleepy time, but the view of the desert with the sunrise kept me awake, its incredible! If a picture is a thousand words, then a video is a million. Below is a video showing off the beauty of Paracas, Ica and Huacachina, along with some activities you can get your teeth into.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ4NN4fZ9ow

(I have been trying to embed the video here, but it keeps disappearing, so I´l pu tthe link directly to the video until I can figure it out, if anyone knows how to fix this problem let me know please :) )

Arriving in Paracas we boarded a boat and headed out to the Ballestas Islands. On the way we stopped off at the Candelabro, which is a huge geoglyph drawn in the sand, it represents the lightning rod or staff of the god Viracocha, who was worshipped throughout South America. Viracocha, according to the Inca, is the creator of all things. We continues to some islands to see some of his creations; including Pelicans, Penguins, Sea lions, seals, and a bunch of other birds. On the way there I was stressing out about not being able to film the wildlife up close, or get any good shots. But once we arrived, the Islands were so full of wildlife; it was impossible to not get something in the shot. If you are a wildlife lover then definitely visit!

After getting some great shots we headed back to shore and got back on the bus, headed for Ica. Ica is a desert city south of Lima. It is what you would expect from a desert city; hot, dusty, and slow. Time totally slows down in Ica, Everything is quiete and everyone is chilled. The streets are filled mostly with Moto-taxis and not much else.

I stayed with a friend, Pablo, on the outskirts of the city. He and his family are true Ican (people from Ica?) locals. I learned a lot about the city from Pablo. After sleeping in late after an even later night out, we headed to Huacachina. Huacachina is an oasis just outside the city. It is famous for Sand-boarding, UFOs (which Pablo says he´s seen), wine (which we drank, along with Pisco), drunk tourists (which I´ve seen), and drunk tourists swimming in the oasis (which I´ve been).

We spent an epic day sandboarding and filming our little ´lost in the desert´skit. The Oasis is awesome… the best place to have a cold beer in the middle of the desert. It is filled with families from Ica, who treat it like a local beach.

We had to rush back to the bus, as we spent to long trying to get some last minute shots of the desert, but we made it on time. Finally I got to sleep on the way back to Lima, where I had to catch a flight to my next destination early the next morning.

A few days after leaving Ica I heard word of a large earthquake which had hit the city hard, destroying many homes and injuring hundreds of people. It made me think of my hometown of Christchurch, and reminded me how terrified I´ve become of earthquakes.

On a brighter note, Ica is amazing. It’s a real desert city. I had no idea South America had such a large desert, I always imagined everything to be green, much like my next destination. Which I will post about here on Travel Globe next week. ??I hope you enjoy the video! Let me know what you think! If you have been to Paracas, tell me what you did that I missed!??

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